Review: Based on an old Chinese period tale, ‘Chinese Torture Chamber’ has been adapted before in a TV play by a Chinese TV Company. However, the original tale and the inspired TV play focused much more on the romantic and dramatic aspects, unlike this Hong Kong version. Produced by Wong Jin studios, which are now famous for their numerous Cat III classic movies such as ‘Ebola Syndrome’ and the ‘Raped by an Angel’ series, you know that this movie won’t be a gentle drama.

Inspired by a true story, the premise contains few elements of the original tale, such as the two lovers being suspected of murder and tortured, and also most of the characters. As for the rest, you can guess for yourself that most of the fantasy elements, idiotic events, over the top gore, soft porn scenes and penis explosion is pure fiction (well, I think).

In general it’s a pretty entertaining story with a lot of gory and sexual scenes, but as for the acting, it’s not surprising to see that it’s very average in general. The movie is not serious, such as the characters. In the main role, Yvonne Yung plays Little Cabbage, the little delicate maiden. Her acting is usually very corny but it’s obvious that they didn’t choose her for her acting skill, but for her bodily appearance.

Among the characters, there is just one pair of characters really worth mentioning in the movie, and it’s the lover’s duo Tsui Kam-Kong and his partner. Their side story seems interesting but the movie never really takes too much time to explain who they are. I’m sure that some of you saw that clip on internet of two people having sex in a way that Hong Kong usually shoots their martial art movies, with flying and spinning in the air, well that clip is from this movie and feature these two characters.

So now, what about those fantasy scenes and gory shots? Well, the title is a bit misleading as the movie is graphically violent and presents old Chinese tortures, but it also features a lot of soft porn scenes too. Be careful, because that might make some people uncomfortable. Chinese Torture Chamber is not what I would call a good date movie.

The gory stuff is really cheesy and is more funny than repulsive, but is also very inventive. As for the soft porn stuff, which was a bit more present than the violence, it’s very ordinary and doesn’t show that much. Sometime, they even mixed the scenes with cartoon sounds, which make it really laughable.